The present invention relates to a document annotation system and more particularly to a document management system that enables (1) documents (containing one or a combination of images and text) to be annotated with searchable text that is stored independently from the underlying scanned documents and (2) the annotation of those documents to cause workflow rules to be triggered.
Various software packages have been built to manage computer generated and/or scanned documents. One such software package is ADOBE ACROBAT by Abode Systems that enables Portable Document Format (PDF) files to be written. (A more limited functionality PDF reader is also available under the tradename Abode Acrobat Reader.) In addition to the xe2x80x9cnativexe2x80x9d features that are available, ADOBE ACROBAT can be augmented with additional functionality using xe2x80x9cplug-insxe2x80x9d that conform to an Application Programming Interface (API).
Various texts have been written describing some of the features of ADOBE ACROBAT. Examples of such texts include: xe2x80x9cPDF Printing and Workflow,xe2x80x9d by Frank J. Romano, published by Prentice Hall (Oct. 20, 1998), ISBN: 013020837X; Adobe Acrobat Forms Set, By Adobe Developer Technologies, Published by Adobe Systems Inc., Published: January 2000, ISBN: DM10003157; Adobe Acrobat Interapplication Communication Documentation Set, By Adobe Developer Technologies, Published by Adobe Systems Inc., Date Published: February 2000, ISBN: DM10002537; Portable Document Format Reference Manual, Version 1.3, by Adobe Systems; Acrobat Software Development Kit (SDK), Version 4.05; Adobe Acrobat Forms Data Format (FDF) Toolkit SDK; and Abode Technical Notes 5167, 5182, 5190, 5191, 5164, 5165, 5183, 5157, 5158, 5151, 5181, 5193, 5194, 5162, 5160, 5192, 5400, 5172, 5150, and 5159, each revised November, 2000. Each of those references is incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. As shown in FIG. 6.1 of Portable Document Format Reference Manual, Version 1.3, ADOBE ACROBAT enables annotations to be stored within a PDF file such that they may be retrieved and/or searched later. An exemplary annotation is shown in FIG. 1. However, the embedding of those annotations within the file also prevents them from being easily searched by non-ADOBE ACROBAT applications. Software Development Kit (SDK), Version 4.05; Adobe Acrobat Forms Data Format (FDF) Toolkit SDK; and Abode Technical Notes 5167, 5182, 5190, 5191, 5164, 5165, 5183, 5157, 5158, 5151, 5181, 5193, 5194, 5162, 5160, 5192, 5400, 5172, 5150, and 5159, each revised November, 2000. Each of those references is incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. As shown in FIG. 6.1 of Portable Document Format Reference Manual, Version 1.3, Adobe Acrobat enables annotations to be stored within a PDF file such that they may be retrieved and/or searched later. An exemplary annotation is shown in FIG. 1. However, the embedding of those annotations within the file also prevents them from being easily searched by non-Adobe Acrobat applications.
In addition, database software packages are also available from various manufacturers. Such software includes, but is not limited to, Lotus Notes, SQL Server from Microsoft Corporation, and Oracle8i from Oracle Corporation. Such software enables data to be stored in and retrieved from the corresponding databases.
It is an object of the present invention to provide at least one of a text overlay and a graphic overlay for a displayable computer document (e.g., a PDF file) where the overlay and the image are stored separately and the addition, modification or deletion of parts of the overlay cause workflow rules to be triggered.
This object and other advantages of the present invention are addressed by at least one computer system in which information of a first type (e.g., a textual or graphic annotation) is stored in a first location and a document of a second type (e.g., a scanned image or a computer generated file) is stored in a second location. In one embodiment, the first and second locations are different files and/or databases of a single computer. Alternately, in another embodiment, the first and second locations are file systems of two different computers connected via a network.